Synopsis: While the Enterprise is on a mission to save a planet, Lt. Commander Data meets a woman who tells him she is his mother.
This episode is a physical manifestation of archetypal psychologist James Hillman’s concept that the energy from the puer archetype must break free from the energy of the mother archetype in order to engage the energy of the hero archetype.
In “Inheritance” when Lt. Commander Data meets Dr. Juliana Tainer, she asks him if he recognizes her. Data tells her he does not, and Tainer tells him that she was married to Dr. Noonien Soong, the scientist who created Data. As such, she considers herself, in a way, Data’s mother. She explains that his memory of what they refer to as his “childhood,” which sounds more like the awkward learning stages of android development, was erased which is why he does not know her.
Data investigates her claim and finds some evidence that what she tells him is true. However, it is only after Tainer is injured and it is apparent that she is an android like himself – although one created to appear completely human, that he truly believes she is his mother.
In the episode, Data must decide whether to tell Tainer that she is an android, as she does not know she is, or to let her continue to know herself as human. A very difficult decision to make for someone else, as her entire fate and sense of identity would be changed if she learns this truth. However, as Data explains to Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Counselor Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher, to be able to identify her as an android, someone like himself, would mean that he would not be alone in the universe.
“Inheritance” ends by Data honoring Soong’s wishes, and not telling Tainer that she is an android. In the archetypal psychological terms of Hillman, Data has broken with the woman who represents the mother archetype to him in order to be that much closer to engaging the hero aspects of himself.
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